Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector, with a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
, and the
Natural History Museum, London
The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum an ...
.
[ He was elected to the ]Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
at the age of 24. Sloane travelled to the Caribbean in 1687 and documented his travels and findings with extensive publications years later. Sloane was a renowned medical doctor among the aristocracy, and was elected to the Royal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...
at age 27. Though he is credited with the invention of chocolate milk, it is more likely that he learned the practice of adding milk to drinking chocolate while living and working in Jamaica. Streets and places were later named after him, including Hans Place
Hans Place (usually pronounced ) is a garden square in the Knightsbridge district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, immediately south of Harrods in SW1. It is named after Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, PRS (16 April 1660 ...
, Hans Crescent, and Sloane Square
Sloane Square is a small hard-landscaped square on the boundaries of the central London districts of Belgravia and Chelsea, located southwest of Charing Cross, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The area forms a boundary betwe ...
in and around Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an affluent area in west London, England, due south-west of Charing Cross by approximately 2.5 miles. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the south-western postal area.
Chelsea histori ...
– the area of his final residence – and also Sir Hans Sloane Square in his birthplace in Northern Ireland, Killyleagh
Killyleagh (; ) is a village and civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the A22 road between Belfast and Downpatrick, on the western side of Strangford Lough. It had a population of 2,483 people in the 2001 Census. It is best ...
.
Early life and family
Sloane was born into an Anglo-Irish family on 16 April 1660 at Killyleagh
Killyleagh (; ) is a village and civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the A22 road between Belfast and Downpatrick, on the western side of Strangford Lough. It had a population of 2,483 people in the 2001 Census. It is best ...
, a village on the south-western shores of Strangford Lough
Strangford Lough (from Old Norse ''Strangr Fjörðr'', meaning "strong sea-inlet"[PlaceNames N ...](_blank)
in County Down
County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...
in Ulster
Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...
, the northern province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...
in Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. Hans Sloane was the seventh and last child of Alexander Sloane who died when Hans was six years old. Alexander Sloane was a collecting general of taxes for County Down and 1st Earl of Clanbrassil James Hamilton's agent. (c. 1618–1659), and brother to James Sloane, MP (1655–1704). It is said that Sarah Hicks (Hans's mother), was an English woman who moved to Killyleagh as Anne Carey's companion when she married James Hamilton. Sloane's paternal family had migrated from Ayrshire
Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...
, in the south-west of Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
, and settled in east Ulster under King James VI and I
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...
. The Sloane children, including Hans, were taken up by the Hamilton family and had much of their early tuition conducted within the Killyleagh Castle library. Out of Alexander's sons, only three reached adulthood: Hans, William, and James. The graveyards of Henry and John Sloane can be found in Killyleagh's parish courtyard; both brothers died in their childhood. The eldest brother James was elected a Member of Parliament for Roscommon
Roscommon (; ) is the county town and the largest town in County Roscommon in Ireland. It is roughly in the centre of Ireland, near the meeting of the N60, N61 and N63 roads.
The name Roscommon is derived from Coman mac Faelchon who built ...
and Killyleagh in 1692. John Sloane later became an MP of Thetford
Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2015 had a population of 24,340 ...
and a barrister of the Inner Temple
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...
, spending most of his time in London.
Like many other Scots 'Planters
Planters Nut & Chocolate Company is an American snack food company now owned by Hormel Foods. Planters is best known for its processed nuts and for the Mr. Peanut icon that symbolizes them. Mr. Peanut was created by grade schooler Antonio Gentil ...
' in Ulster during the seventeenth-century, the Sloane name was almost certainly of Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...
origin, Sloane probably being an anglicisation of ''Ó Sluagháin''.
As a youth, Sloane collected objects of natural history and other curiosities. This led him to the study of medicine, which he did in London, where he studied botany, '' materia medica'', surgery and pharmacy. His collecting habits made him useful to John Ray
John Ray FRS (29 November 1627 – 17 January 1705) was a Christian English naturalist widely regarded as one of the earliest of the English parson-naturalists. Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray. From then on, he used 'Ray', after ...
and Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle (; 25 January 1627 – 31 December 1691) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, alchemist and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of ...
. After four years in London he travelled through France, spending some time at Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
and Montpellier
Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...
, and stayed long enough at the University of Orange-Nassau to take his MD degree there in 1683; he was hired as an assistant to prominent physician Thomas Sydenham
Thomas Sydenham (10 September 1624 – 29 December 1689) was an English physician. He was the author of ''Observationes Medicae'' which became a standard textbook of medicine for two centuries so that he became known as 'The English Hippocrate ...
who gave the young man valuable introductions to practice. He returned to London with a considerable collection of plants and other curiosities, of which the former were sent to Ray and utilised by him for his ''History of Plants''.
Voyage to the Caribbean and the creation of chocolate milk
Sloane was elected to the Royal Society in 1685. In 1687, he became a fellow of the College of Physicians, and the same year went to Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
aboard as personal physician to the new Governor of Jamaica
This is a list of viceroys in Jamaica from its initial occupation by Spain in 1509, to its independence from the United Kingdom in 1962. For a list of viceroys after independence, see Governor-General of Jamaica. For context, see History of Jamai ...
, the 2nd Duke of Albemarle. Albemarle died in Jamaica the next year, 1688, so Sloane's visit lasted only fifteen months.
During his time in the Caribbean, Sloane visited several islands and collected more than 1,000 plant specimens as well as large supplies of cacao and Peruvian bark from which he later extracted quinine
Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to ''Plasmodium falciparum'' that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While sometimes used for nocturnal leg cr ...
to treat eye ailments. Sloane noted about 800 new species of plants, which he catalogued in Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
in his ''Catalogus Plantarum Quae in Insula Jamaica Sponte Proveniunt'' (Catalogue of Jamaican Plants), published in 1696. His first writings about his trip appeared in the ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in 1665, making it the first journa ...
'', in which Sloane described Jamaican plants such as the Pepper Tree and the coffee-shrub, alongside accounts of the earthquakes that struck Lima in 1687 and Jamaica in 1687/1688 and 1692. In Sloane's work, ''Natural History of Jamaica'', he describes for the Queen of England the Black ethnomusic of Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
.
*
*
Sloane married Elizabeth Langley Rose, the widow of Fulke Rose
Fulke Rose (10 April 1644 – c. March 1694) was a British physician and early colonist of Jamaica. He was one of the principal buyers in Jamaica of slaves taken by the Royal African Company and had extensive land-holdings on the island. He ...
of Jamaica, and daughter of Alderman
An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...
John Langley
John Russell Langley (June 1, 1943 – June 26, 2021) was an American television and film director, writer, and producer who was best known as the creator and executive producer of the television show ''Cops (TV program), Cops'', which premiere ...
, a wealthy heiress of sugar plantations in Jamaica worked by slaves. The couple had three daughters, Mary, Sarah and Elizabeth, and one son, Hans; only Sarah and Elizabeth survived infancy. Sarah married George Stanley of Paultons and Elizabeth married Charles Cadogan, who became 2nd Baron Cadogan. Once back in Britain, income from Sloane's career as a physician and his London property investments, coupled with Elizabeth's inheritance, enabled Sloane to build his substantial collection of natural history artefacts in the following decades. Sloane additionally had investments in the Royal African and South Sea Companies, both of which traded in slaves.
The Natural History Museum lists Sloane as the inventor of drinking chocolate with milk. However, according to historian James Delbourgo
James Delbourgo (1972) is a writer and historian of science, collecting and museums. He is the James Westfall Thompson Chair and Distinguished Professor of History at Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State ...
, the Jamaicans were brewing “a hot beverage brewed from shavings of freshly harvested cacao, boiled with milk and cinnamon” as far back as 1494. Sloane encountered the cocoa bean while he was in Jamaica, where the local people drank it mixed with water, though he is reported to have found it nauseating. Many recipes for mixing chocolate with spice, eggs, sugar and milk were in circulation by the seventeenth century. Sloane may have devised his own recipe for mixing chocolate with milk, though if so, he was probably not the first. (Some sources credit Daniel Peter
Daniel Peter (9 March 1836 – 4 November 1919) was a Swiss chocolatier and entrepreneur who founded Peter's Chocolate. A neighbour of Henri Nestlé in Vevey, he was one of the first chocolatiers to make milk chocolate and is credited for inven ...
as the inventor in 1875, using condensed milk; other sources point out that milk was added to chocolate centuries earlier in some countries.) By the 1750s, a Soho grocer named Nicholas Sanders claimed to be selling Sloane's recipe as a medicinal elixir, perhaps making "Sir Hans Sloane's Milk Chocolate" the first brand-name milk chocolate drink. By the nineteenth century, the Cadbury Brothers
Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company fully owned by Mondelez International (originally Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after Mars ...
sold tins of drinking chocolate whose trade cards also invoked Sloane's recipe.
In 1707 Sloane listed the variety of punishments inflicted on slaves in Jamaica. For rebellion, slaves were usually punished "by nailing them down to the ground ... and then applying the fire by degrees from the feet and hands, burning them gradually up to the head, whereby their pains are extravagant." For lesser crimes, castration or mutilation ("chopping off half the foot") was the norm. And as for negligence, slaves "are usually whipt ... after they are whipt till they are raw, some put on their skins pepper and salt to make them smart; at other times their masters will drip melted wax on their skins, and use very exquisite torments."
Society physician
Sloane started his own practice in 1689 at 3 Bloomsbury Place, London, Sloane worked among the upper classes where he was viewed as fashionable; he built a large practice which became lucrative. The physician served three successive sovereigns: Queen Anne, George I George I or 1 may refer to:
People
* Patriarch George I of Alexandria (fl. 621–631)
* George I of Constantinople (d. 686)
* George I of Antioch (d. 790)
* George I of Abkhazia (ruled 872/3–878/9)
* George I of Georgia (d. 1027)
* Yuri Dolgor ...
, and George II George II or 2 may refer to:
People
* George II of Antioch (seventh century AD)
* George II of Armenia (late ninth century)
* George II of Abkhazia (916–960)
* Patriarch George II of Alexandria (1021–1051)
* George II of Georgia (1072–1089)
* ...
.
There was some criticism of Sloane during his lifetime as a mere "virtuoso", an undiscriminating collector who lacked understanding of scientific principles. One critic stated that he was merely interested in the collection of knick-knacks, and another called him the "foremost toyman of his time". Sir Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...
described Sloane as "a villain and rascal" and "a very tricking fellow". Some believed that his true achievement was in making friends in high society and with important political figures, rather than in science. Even as a physician, he did not get a great deal of respect from many, being seen as primarily a seller of medications and a collector of curios. Sloane's only medical publication, an ''Account of a Medicine for Soreness, Weakness and other Distempers of the Eyes'' (London, 1745), was not published until its author was in his eighty-fifth year and had retired from practice.[
In 1716 Sloane was created a baronet, making him the first medical practitioner to receive a hereditary title. In 1719 he became president of the ]Royal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...
, holding the office for sixteen years. In 1722 he was appointed physician-general to the army, and in 1727 first physician to George II.
He was elected president of Royal College of Physicians in 1719 and served in that role until 1735. He became secretary to the Royal Society in 1693, and edited its ''Philosophical Transactions'' for twenty years. In 1727 he succeeded Sir Isaac Newton as president. He retired from the Society at the age of eighty.
Sloane's role as First Secretary and later President of the Royal Society, a period which included his revitalising editorship of the ''Philosophical Transactions'', permitted Sloane little time for progressing his own scientific research, which led to the criticism of Sloane as a mere "virtuoso".
Aside from his service as Royal Physician, Sloane's true achievement during his time at the Royal Society was in acting as a conduit between the worlds of science, politics and high society.
Sloane's time in France at the beginning of his career later enabled him to fulfil the role of intermediary between British and French scientists, fostering the sharing of knowledge between the two countries at the height of the Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment; german: Aufklärung, "Enlightenment"; it, L'Illuminismo, "Enlightenment"; pl, Oświecenie, "Enlightenment"; pt, Iluminismo, "Enlightenment"; es, La Ilustración, "Enlightenment" was an intel ...
. Notables from that period who visited Sloane to view his collection include the Swiss anatomist Albrecht von Haller
Albrecht von Haller (also known as Albertus de Haller; 16 October 170812 December 1777) was a Swiss anatomist, physiologist, naturalist, encyclopedist, bibliographer and poet. A pupil of Herman Boerhaave, he is often referred to as "the fa ...
, Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...
, Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
and Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
.[
In 1745, at the age of eighty-five, and after having retired from medical practice, Sloane published his first medical work, ''Account of a Medicine for Soreness, Weakness and other Distempers of the Eyes'' (London, 1745).
During his life, Sloane was a correspondent of the French ]Académie Royale des Sciences
The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the ...
and was named foreign associate in 1709, in addition to being a foreign member of the academies of science in Prussia, Saint Petersburg, Madrid and Göttingen.
Charity work
Sloane helped out at Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553 ...
from 1694 to 1730 and donated his salary back to that institution. He also supported the Royal College of Physicians' dispensary of inexpensive medications and operated a free surgery every morning.
He was a founding governor of London's Foundling Hospital
The Foundling Hospital in London, England, was founded in 1739 by the philanthropic sea captain Thomas Coram. It was a children's home established for the "education and maintenance of exposed and deserted young children." The word "hospital" w ...
, the nation's first institution to care for abandoned children. Inoculation against smallpox was required for all children in its care; Sloane was one of the physicians of that era who promoted inoculation as a method to prevent smallpox, using it on his own family and promoting it to the royal family.
The British Museum and Chelsea Physic Garden
Sloane's purchase of the manor of Chelsea, London, in 1712, provided the grounds for the Chelsea Physic Garden
The Chelsea Physic Garden was established as the Apothecaries' Garden in London, England, in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries to grow plants to be used as medicines. This four acre physic garden, the term here referring to the sc ...
.
Over his lifetime, Sloane collected over 71,000 objects: books, manuscripts, drawings, coins and medals, plant specimens and others. His great stroke as a collector was to acquire in 1702 (by bequest, conditional on paying of certain debts) the cabinet of curiosities owned by William Courten
Sir William Courten or Curteen (1572–1636) was a wealthy 17th century merchant, operating from London. He financed the colonisation of Barbados, but lost his investment and interest in the islands to the Earl of Carlisle.
Birth and upbringing ...
, who had made collecting the business of his life.
When Sloane retired in 1741, his library and cabinet of curiosities, which he took with him from Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions.
Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...
to his house in Chelsea, had grown to be of unique value. He had acquired the extensive natural history collections of William Courten, Cardinal Filippo Antonio Gualterio, James Petiver
James Petiver (c. 1665 – c. 2 April 1718) was a London apothecary, a fellow of the Royal Society as well as London's informal Temple Coffee House Botany Club, famous for his specimen collections in which he traded and study of botany and entom ...
, Nehemiah Grew
Nehemiah Grew (26 September 164125 March 1712) was an English plant anatomist and physiologist, known as the "Father of Plant Anatomy".
Biography
Grew was the only son of Obadiah Grew (1607–1688), Nonconformist divine and vicar of St Micha ...
, Leonard Plukenet
Leonard Plukenet (1641–1706) was an English botanist, Royal Professor of Botany and gardener to Queen Mary.
Biography
Plukenet published ''Phytographia'' (London, 1691–1696) in four parts in which he described and illustrated rare exotic p ...
, the Duchess of Beaufort
{{unreferenced, date=June 2017
Duchess of Beaufort is a title held by the wife of the Duke of Beaufort in the Peerage of England. In 1657 Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Worcester married Mary Capell and in 1682 the dukedom was created by Charle ...
, Adam Buddle
Adam Buddle (1662–1715) was an English cleric and botanist.
Born at Deeping St James, a small village near Peterborough, Buddle was educated at Woodbridge School and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he gained a BA in 1681, and an M ...
, Paul Hermann, Franz Kiggelaer
François, Franciscus, or Frans Kiggelaer (baptized 4 December 1648, in Haarlem – buried 22 December 1722, in The Hague)D. O. WijnandsThe Botany of the Commelins A.A. Balekma, Rotterdam, 1983, pp210-11 was a Dutch botanist, apothecary and curato ...
and Herman Boerhaave
Herman Boerhaave (, 31 December 1668 – 23 September 1738Underwood, E. Ashworth. "Boerhaave After Three Hundred Years." ''The British Medical Journal'' 4, no. 5634 (1968): 820–25. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20395297.) was a Dutch botanist, ...
.
Death and legacy
In his final year, Sir Hans Sloane suffered from a disorder with some paralysis. He died on the afternoon of 11 January 1753 at the Manor House
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...
, Chelsea, and was buried on 18 January in the south-east corner of the churchyard at Chelsea Old Church
Chelsea Old Church, also known as All Saints, is an Anglican church, on Old Church Street, Chelsea, London SW3, England, near Albert Bridge. It is the church for a parish in the Diocese of London, part of the Church of England. Inside the Grade ...
with a memorial inscribed as follows:To the memory of SIR HANS SLOANE BART President of the Royal Society, and of the College of Physicians; who in the year of our Lord 1753, the 92d of his age, without the least pain of body and with a conscious serenity of mind, ended a virtuous and beneficent life. This monument was erected by his two daughters ELIZA CADOGAN and SARAH STANLEY
His grave is shared with his wife Elisabeth who died in 1724.
On his death he bequeathed his books, manuscripts, prints, drawings, flora, fauna, medals, coins, seals, cameos and other curiosities to the nation, on condition that Parliament should pay his executors £20,000, far less than the value of the collection, estimated at £80,000 or greater by some sources and at over £50,000 by others. The bequest was accepted on those terms by an act passed the same year, and the collection, together with George II's royal library, and other objects. A significant proportion of this collection was later to become the foundation for the Natural History Museum
A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...
. When Sloane wrote his will not only did he say he wanted to sell his work to the Parliament for 20,000 pounds, he also stated that he wanted his work to be seen by anyone who wanted to see it. The Curators thought that only scholars and the upper class were allowed to see the collection. They weren't comfortable with the idea that the lower class was able to come to the museum and look at the collection because they didn't think that lower class citizens were worthy. The Curators believed that learning was a privilege that only the upper class had.
He also gave the Society of Apothecaries the land of the Chelsea Physic Garden which they had rented from the Chelsea estate since 1673.
A life-size statue of Sloane was erected in the town square of Killyleagh
Killyleagh (; ) is a village and civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the A22 road between Belfast and Downpatrick, on the western side of Strangford Lough. It had a population of 2,483 people in the 2001 Census. It is best ...
, the town in which he was born.
Controversy
In August 2020 a bust of Sloane in the British Museum's Enlightenment Gallery was moved by the museum. The decision came as part of that year's wave of removals of monuments to those who had benefited from slavery. ''History Ireland
''History Ireland'' is a magazine with a focus on the history of Ireland. The first issue of the magazine appeared in Spring 1993. It went full-colour in 2004 and since 2005 it is published bi-monthly. It features articles by a range of writers ...
'' editor Tony Canavan, writing of the decision and observing the fact that the Sloane family had moved to Ireland from Scotland during the Tudor conquest of Ireland
The Tudor conquest (or reconquest) of Ireland took place under the Tudor dynasty, which held the Kingdom of England during the 16th century. Following a failed rebellion against the crown by Silken Thomas, the Earl of Kildare, in the 1530s, He ...
, noted that "the fact that Sloane came from a Scots-Irish family who benefited from a different kind of plantation, following the expulsion of natives and the confiscation of their land, hich seemednever to have been an issue".
Places named after Sloane
Sloane Square
Sloane Square is a small hard-landscaped square on the boundaries of the central London districts of Belgravia and Chelsea, located southwest of Charing Cross, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The area forms a boundary betwe ...
, Sloane Street
Sloane Street is a major London street in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea which runs north to south, from Knightsbridge to Sloane Square, crossing Pont Street about halfway along.
History
Sloane Street takes its name from Sir H ...
, Sloane Avenue
Sloane Avenue is a road in London.
Sloane Avenue runs roughly north-west to south-east from Brompton Road in Kensington to a junction with Elystan Place and Bray Place, and its short southern continuation, Anderson Street, joins the King's Road i ...
, Sloane Grammar School and Sloane Gardens in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is an Inner London borough with royal status. It is the smallest borough in London and the second smallest district in England; it is one of the most densely populated administrative regions in the ...
are named after Sloane. His first name is given to Hans Street, Hans Crescent, Hans Place and Hans Road, all of which are also situated in the Royal Borough.
Plants and animals named after Sloane
* ''Sloanea
''Sloanea'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Elaeocarpaceae, comprising about 150 species.
Species include:
* '' Sloanea acutiflora'' Uittien
* '' Sloanea assamica'' Rehder & E. Wilson
* ''Sloanea australis'' Benth. & F.Muell., an ...
'', a plant genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
, was named after him by Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
.
* ''Urania sloanus
''Urania sloanus'', or Sloane's urania, was a species of moth of the family Uraniidae endemic to Jamaica. It was last reported in 1894 or 1895,Lees, D.C. & Smith, N.G. (1991)"Foodplants of the Uraniinae (Uraniinae) and their Systematic, Evolution ...
'', a species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of moth.
* ''Spondylurus sloanii
''Spondylurus sloanii'', also known Common name, commonly as Sloane's skink or the Virgin Islands bronze skink, is a species of lizard in the Family (biology), family Scincidae. The species is native to the United States Virgin Islands and the Br ...
'', a species of lizard, was named in his honour by Daudin.
* ''Chauliodus sloani
Sloane's viperfish, ''Chauliodus sloani'', is a predatory mesopelagic dragonfish found in waters across the world. The species was first described by German scientists Marcus Elieser Bloch and Johann Gottlob Schneider in their 1801 book ''Systema ...
'', a species of deep sea fish found across the world.
See also
* British Library Leyden Medical Dissertations Collection The British Library Leyden Medical Dissertations Collection is a collection of medical dissertations submitted to Dutch universities at Amsterdam, Utrecht, Harlingen, and Leyden. It includes, in particular, a fine set of Leyden medical dissertations ...
* George Edwards
* Levinus Vincent
Levinus Vincent the Younger, (1658 in Amsterdam – 8 November 1727 in Haarlem) was a rich Dutch designer of patterns and merchant of luxurious textiles, such as damask, silk and brocade.Colenbrander, S. (2010). Zolang de weefkunst bloeit : zij ...
* Thomas Thistlewood
Thomas Thistlewood (16 March 1721 ‒ 30 November 1786) was an English planter in colonial Jamaica. Thistlewood migrated to the western end of the Colony of Jamaica where he became a plantation overseer, plantation owner and slaver. His lengthy ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Lyons, J. 2008. p. 53 – 54. The Life and Times of a famous Ulsterman. Copeland Report for 2008. Copeland Bird Observatory
*
*
Further reading
* Jenny Uglow
Jennifer Sheila Uglow (, (accessed 5 February 2008).
(accessed 19 August 2022). born 1947) is an English biographer, hi ...
, "Collecting for the Glory of God" (review of James Delbourgo
James Delbourgo (1972) is a writer and historian of science, collecting and museums. He is the James Westfall Thompson Chair and Distinguished Professor of History at Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State ...
, ''Collecting the World: Hans Sloane and the Origins of the British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
'', Belknap Press
Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...
/Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...
, 2017), ''The New York Review of Books
''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
'', vol. LXIV, no. 15 (12 October 2017), pp. 34–36.
*
*Ortolja-Baird, Alexandra. 2021
“''Chaos naturae et artis'': Imitation, Innovation and Improvisation in Sir Hans Sloane’s library. Part Two”.
''Library and Information History.''
*Ortolja-Baird, Alexandra. 2020
“''Chaos naturae et artis'': Imitation, Innovation and Improvisation in Sir Hans Sloane’s library. Part One”.
''Library and Information History''.
External links
Reconstructing Sloane: Consortium for Sloane research
"Index to the Sloane manuscripts in the British Museum", in the British Museum in various formats, at Archive.org
A Voyage… on Botanicus
Catalogus Plantarum...on Botanicus
The Sloane Printed Books Catalogue
Sloane Correspondence Online
Sloane Letters Blog
ttp://www.brown.edu/Facilities/John_Carter_Brown_Library/exhibitions/sloane/index.html
British Museum: Sir Hans Sloane
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sloane, Hans
1660 births
1753 deaths
17th-century Irish medical doctors
18th-century English medical doctors
18th-century Irish medical doctors
Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain
Botanists active in the Caribbean
Fellows of the Royal Society
Honorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
17th-century Irish botanists
Irish people of Scottish descent
Museum founders
People associated with the British Museum
People from County Down
People from Killyleagh
Pre-Linnaean botanists
Presidents of the Royal College of Physicians
Presidents of the Royal Society
Burials at Chelsea Old Church
Monuments and memorials removed during the George Floyd protests